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Well, after over ten years on eBay and nearly that long with Paypal, I had my first negative experience. Unfortunately, I was scammed out of my MBP and its Booq Mamba bag.

To make a long story short, I had these items listed for sale in a single auction. They were purchased, and the buyer paid through Paypal. The funds cleared Paypal's hold and I transferred them to my checking account. From my past experience, at this point, everything's fine and the money is mine, so I shipped the goods. Apparently not so.

My mistake (a big one) was not shipping to the buyer's Paypal registered address. I assumed that he was either on the road for a few weeks or had recently moved and not updated Paypal yet. Since I thought I already had the money, I said OK. I should (obviously) have insisted that he update Paypal and then I'd ship to that address. Live and learn.

The day after shipping, Paypal flagged the transaction as potentially fraudulent and debited my account for the total amount. The buyer claimed in email that he would take care of things with Paypal, Paypal claimed to have heard from him (though one guy there never knows what another has done as they don't reliably update their case file after each contact), but nothing actually happened. After a few days, the 'buyer' stopped answering my messages.

Yesterday I filed a police report. They wrote it up as stolen property and grand theft. So, if anyone comes across MBP serial # W88501QX1GA or Booq Mamba serial # B0281HO7680 , I'd really appreciate hearing about it. If you'd rather not contact me directly for any reason, the open case file is with the Clermont, FL police department (352-394-5588), case # 2009-00005630.

Paypal's protections, such as they are, seem set up to protect buyers, not sellers. If I'd shipped to a registered address, I might be in better shape, but not definitely. Paypal mostly just protects their own interests. Anything else is marketing. Check out this link:

Unfortunately, it seems as though a legitimate eBay & Paypal user had his account data stolen by my 'buyer'. He used this guy's accounts to masquerade as the real guy to commit this crime.

I've posted the serial numbers and case numbers on several sites now, including my Facebook page, I've notified Apple (their case # is: 120412618), and I've involved law enforcement. I'm probably screwed, but I feel as though I've done what I can do at this point. If I've missed anything, I'm certainly open to suggestions.

That's too bad. Paypal is a joke for sellers. I sold my first gen iPhone on there and only guaranteed DOA, nothing else. The buyer admitted the phone worked for a while and must have done something to mess it up. I tried working with the buyer to fix it even though I wasn't liable, but they could only scream refund at me. It was a very cut and dry case, but Paypal sided with the buyer anyway. Luckily paypal set a deadline to return the phone and the buyer didn't send it back in time. Something tells me the buyer finally got off their butt and got it to work. So in my case I was off the hook.

Hopefully your luck will turn for the better also.

"Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others"